


star crossed

by Areiton



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Creature Fic, I'm always always always gonna write Stony with their besties beause I've got issues, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Mythology References, POV Multiple, POV Second Person, Pining, The Space Stone Ships It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23911582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: "The gods made the stars,” you whisper, a lifetime ago, a heartbeat ago, now, “and they were so bright, so beautiful and strong, that they ripped them in two. And half of ‘em fell to earth, and woke from the dust and walked as men.”
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 14
Kudos: 75
Collections: Lights on Park Ave





	star crossed

_ In the story, you fall in love with a girl on another planet.  _

_ She’s been dead for years, but through your telescope you watch her laugh, laughing too.  _

_ You wave when she, _

_ remembering her smallness _

_ remembers the stars. _

You always loved the stars. Mama had a book, and you would sit with her, and listen to her stories, and look at the stars. Bucky said they were cold--beautiful but cold, and would drag you back inside, to read comics and fall asleep curled around each other, warm as puppies, protective as a wolf. 

You, though--you loved the stars. You would sit and stare at them, and trace their pictures in the night sky, and there was one, golden glow with a scarlet center, that you loved more than most. 

~*~ 

The world changes and you changed, and you sat in a trench in Europe, and stared up at the sky, at the stars that hung there, small and cold and lonely and beautiful. 

“Why’d’ya love ‘em so much, Stevie?” Bucky asks one night, leaning against your shoulder. He’s got his fingers looped around your wrist, and you can feel his heartbeat in the press of callouses against your thin skin, and it’s reassuring to both of you. 

“The gods made the stars,” you murmur, sleepy, “and they were so bright, so beautiful and strong, that they ripped them in two. And half of ‘em fell to earth, and woke from the dust and walked as men. And we forgot, over centuries and centuries, where we came from. We forgot, that we belong to the stars.” 

You pause and you smile, your gaze fixed on gold touched scarlet. “We forgot that we fell from them, but that we  _ are  _ them, and part of our souls is still up there.” 

Bucky is quiet, and you are, his heartbeat steady and your breathing soft, and you sleep. 

~*~ 

Peggy talks, fast and urgent and you think you’re sorry. You’d have been happy, living with her. Maybe not as happy as you  _ could _ have been, but happy. You wish you could tell her that. 

You angle the plane down, into the ocean, and the last thing you see before the ocean eats up your view and the icy water closes over the plane--is a star. 

Gold touched scarlet. 

~*~ 

They tell you the war was won, but not what was lost. 

They tell you your family--your  _ team _ \--died, but not who survived. 

They tell you time has passed, but not what that means. 

It’s only when you’re tucked into a cabin on the edge of America, a file seventy years thick in your hand and grief in your throat, the night crowding in that you realize what no one thought to tell you. 

The stars--that one thing you thought could never change-- _ have. _

~*~ 

You look for it, sometimes. That star that was always your favorite, the one you could always find in the sky--gold touched scarlet--and you can’t find it. 

You wonder what it means, that you miss a cold and distant glowing star more than you do everyone you ever knew. 

~*~ 

When Stark falls from the sky, from a black hole in the sky, he’s beautiful. 

A gold touched scarlet comet, and you can’t  _ breathe _ . 

~*~ 

_ There are stories. Stories and stories.  _

Stars don’t tell stories. 

_ There are  _ stories. __

_ Tell me your story, sweetheart, spun of dying stars and forgotten realms and love.  _

_ Listen to mine, darling star, of a sweet boy and a cold ocean and a war-touched love story.  _

Stars don’t tell stories. 

_ They don’t live them either.  _

_ ~*~  _

**They**

**F**

**A**

**L**

**L.**

~*~ 

He wakes slowly. 

He thinks it takes years, longer than he ever dreamed--he wakes,  _ so slowly. _

He wakes to a mother, distant and reserved. 

He wakes to a father, cold and angry. 

He wakes to a servant, affectionate and protective. 

He wakes to  _ Rhodey _ , here, here, always. 

Rhodey, who said, tell me a story. Who said, I’ll go with you. Who said, Binary stars are  _ brothers.  _

He wakes to Rhodey, and longs for  _ Steve.  _

~*~ 

“I could go,” Tony murmurs, and Rhodey curls around him. They run cold, the pair of them, and Rhodey--bigger, older, even here--fusses over Tony, wraps him in blankets and stuffs his feet in socks and curls around him, a protective layer. 

“Not yet,” Rhodey murmurs. “You promised.” 

Tony huffs, a quiet displeased noise, and settles back into his brother’s arms.

~*~ 

He waits. The years are long and he watches the sky, sometimes, and he  _ waits, _ aching and never alone, not with Rhodey, not with his  _ brother.  _

He shines, even here, a brilliant mind, a ruthless innovator, so bright they call him a rising star. 

Rhodey laughs and laughs and laughs, and Tony watches, proud and smug, at his meteoric rise in the military. 

He waits, and he watches the sky, the stars spinning slow and familiar overhead--

But he watches the ocean, more. 

~*~ 

_ Sweet child, will you wait?  _

_ Will you hurt, because love, love  _ hurts,  _ little one, you have not felt how deeply it can hurt.  _

_ Is he worth hurting for, brightling, worth dying for? _

_ Darling, starling,  _ **_light_ ** _ , what would you do, for him?  _

_ ~*~ _

He’s beautiful. 

He’s  _ beautiful  _ and Tony trembles, aching, because Steve is tarnished, sharp edges and biting words, dull eyes. 

His boy, his boy, his beautiful broken boy. 

_ What did they do to you, my heart? _

They fight and they fight--each other and Loki. There’s one moment, standing with the others--the widow and her archer, Banner,  _ Thor _ \--that Steve looks at him, and it’s warm. 

He shivers under that gaze, has  _ missed _ it, all of Steve’s warmth and affection. 

There’s one moment. It’s enough. 

It will never be enough. 

~*~ 

"The gods made the stars,” you whisper, a lifetime ago, a heartbeat ago,  _ now _ , “and they were so bright, so beautiful and strong, that they ripped them in two. And half of ‘em fell to earth, and woke from the dust and walked as men.”

~*~ 

He flies. 

He  _ soars _ . 

And for an endless eternity--he’s home. 

~*~ 

_ A star falls, gold touched scarlet, a comet streaking. _

_ ~*~  _

**He.**

**F**

**A**

**L**

**L**

**S**

~*~ 

You rip his faceplate aside and an unfamiliar suit lands, rough and urgent, next to you. The Hulk  _ roars _ , and you can’t breath. 

~*~ 

Tony opens his eyes, to a sky the color of clouds and his brother’s worried gaze and  _ Steve.  _

~*~ 

_ Darling. Darling.  _

_ I watched you all your life, loved you longer than the stars filled the sky, would happily fall to my death for you.  _

_ Darling.  _

_ Beloved.  _

_ Don't you know--your soul and mine are made of stardust and galaxies. _

_ ~*~  _

You dance with him, under the stars, and when he laughs, his eyes so bright you can scarcely stand to look at him--you swear you see the universe, shining for you. 


End file.
